Star Trek :: The Camelot Encounter
by CaptainRay75
Summary: The Camelot encounters a mirror version of themselves. Can they stop their counterparts from enslaving their own universe!
1. Chapter 1 :: Trouble Is Just Beginning

It was quiet! That was a bit of an understatement since sound don't travel in the vacuum of space but aboard the _U.S.S. Camelot_ the only sound was the chirps and beeps of computer consoles. But other then that there was really nothing to do! The _Camelot_ was instructed to patrol the Swagger Cluster in the Sierra Sector. It had been quiet as well for the last decade until a recent traveler was picked up in an escape pod. It was unclear where exactly he had come from.

"Eta until we reach the Swagger Cluster, Commander Laren" asked Commander Carter.

The helmsman looked down at his readings seeming glad to finally have something to do and responded to the first officer's question. "Two hours at present speed!"

"Very well," Carter replied getting out of the command chair. "Seems like since we received this mission that there hasn't been anything real exciting happening."

"What did you expect a fight around every corner?" asked Hazzard.

Carter looked over at individual who had spoken. "Counselor that's not exactly what I had meant. I just didn't expect us to have been the ship chosen for this when there could and probably is another ship in the vicinity."

Hazzard raised an eyebrow at Carter, "Maybe but there's something about the _Camelot_ always getting drawn the attention of the 'weird' situations!"

The turbolift doors parted before Carter could reply and Captain Downward walked on the bridge carrying what looked like a banner. Downward nodded at his bridge crew before heading into his ready room. Even the captain had been acting a bit weird lately ever since they were ordered to the Sierra Sector.

"Now what do you suppose that is?"

"I'm sure whatever it might be that the captain will discuss it with us when he feels ready to."

Carter turned to look at the stars on the viewscreen as they flew through warp. Without taking her eyes off the screen she sat back down into the command chair then finally looked over at the counselor sitting to her right "Care to join me after shift for a drink?"

"No thank you, I've got some appointments to keep!" Hazzard answered. "Maybe after their done then I'd be delighted."

Carter nodded and looked down at the arm of the chair after hearing several beeps that indicated a message coming through. "Go ahead, captain!"

"Could you come in here please!"

Carter looked back at Hazzard, whom already raised an eyebrow. "On my way, sir!"

* * *

Captain Downward looked at the banner that had been given to him by Starfleet Command before leaving Earth. Whomever was picked up in the escape pod had been wrapped up in this particular banner but nobody in Starfleet had ever seen it before. He was hoping that maybe his first officer might recognize it since Admiral Forrester believes it might have belonged to the Orions.

The door chimes sounded and without looking up Downward gave the unknown permission to enter. "Come!"

The doors parted and his first officer entered. Since taking command of the _Camelot _ this is his third first officer and prays it would be his last for a while. Since Commander Carter's arrival they had become good and close friends. The Captain and First Officer had the best relationship between the two of them over any other Captain and First Officer in the fleet.

"You asked to see me, Captain?"

"Yeah, Samantha please have a seat!" Downward said and waited until she sat. "We have a problem! Do you remember when we picked up that escape pod with the weird markings on it?"

"Of course! The markings of the _I.S.S. Enterprise-E_. Has Starfleet figured it out?" asked Carter.

"They think they have because of this!" Downward stood up and held up the banner of an Orion peace flag.

Carter looked at the flag and with a startled look stood up to examine it closely. It clearly looked Orion but the fabric was all wrong. It either it was a forgery or the flag had been through a lot more! Upon further examination of the flag she could clearly see burn marks in the flag.

"There are burn marks here!"

"That's what Starfleet found. But what they want to know is how it happened? Who would want to kill this man and why?"

"So what's our orders?"

"Well for starters..." Downward was about to explain when suddenly the home room went dark.

Just as suddenly as the room went dark as the lights came back on! Downward and Carter looked all around the room for a malfunction then each other. Whatever happened seemed to have vanished! But as the captain was about to open his mouth to speak the red alert klaxons sounded!

Captain Downward and his first officer walked back onto the bridge to figure out what had possibly just happened! The bridge was a dark crimson red and the viewscreen showed static. "Report!"

Lieutenant Commander Fitzgerald got up from the command chair and took his place and answered. "We're unsure sir. All of a sudden we felt a small jolt and lost all outbound communications. Sensors are minimum!"

"Bridge to engineering!"

"Scott here, Captain!"

"Scotty, I hope you got a explanation for us!" Downward ordered.

"Nae, Captain. We're still trying to figure out who or _what_ hit us. But whatever it was it sent just a little energy pulse towards our main computer core that initiated the intruder alert."

"But the viewscreen?"

"Got no explanation for that captain. Will get right on it!"

"Very well …. bridge out!"

Captain Downward moved up towards the screen and stared at it then turned around. "Helm and navigation still responding?"

Both Laren and Fitzgerald looked at their boards and then answered in unison, "Aye, sir!"

Downward nodded then ordered, "All stop!"

The _Camelot_ glided to a full stop and was stationary in its current position. Suddenly the viewscreen came back on and the sight on the screen startled them. They seemed to be looking at a mirror image of themselves.

"Shields, sir?" asked Tuvok

"No, Mr. Tuvok. Tactical analyst!"

"Captain, the scans indicate that we're looking at a mirror image of another sovereign class starship!"

Carter stood up and looked back at Tuvok. "Registry?"

"NCC-75824-A! _ I.S.S. Camelot!_"

Both Downward and Carter looked from Tuvok back to the viewscreen. "Are you sure your reading that correctly, Mister Tuvok?"

Tuvok looked down at his readings and answered, "Affirmative, Captain!"

Just then the other ship fired at the unprotected _U.S.S. Camelot. _The blast was so powerful that everybody, including those on the lower decks, where thrown completely off their feet! By the time they hit the deck they were unconscious!

* * *

Carter was the first to wake up and glanced at the time clock just above the viewscreen. They had been out of it for nearly 30 minutes now! She looked over and saw Captain Downward barely pulling himself up!

"What the hell was that?"

Slowly the other bridge crew was starting to wake up again and was getting back to their stations. It was Tuvok who answered first. "Sir, some kind of unknown phaser fire!"

"Bridge to engineering!"

Instead of Scotty's voice coming back over the speakers it was Deputy Chief Engineer Reginald Barclay who answered, "Barclay here, Captain! Engineer Scott hasn't woken up yet!"

"Reg, what happened?"

"We're still trying to figure it out, sir! But because we were unprotected they knew where and how to hit us!"

Carter looked at the viewscreen to see it full of static. "Mr. Barclay can you get us visual again?"

"You should have it anytime now!"

The viewscreen changed from static to show empty space. The other ship was gone.


	2. Chapter 2 :: Clues Coming Together

Down in engineering Lieutenant Commander Barclay was trying to get sensors back online. Whatever hit them disabled short and long range sensors as well as life support being drained down to 25%. First thing he would have done was check to see how Scotty was doing but the captain was relying on these systems and he wanted to get them up and running. From the corner of his eye he could see the chief engineer still laying flat on his back.

"Lieutenant T'Kela, please check on Mr. Scott!"

"Aye, sir!"

The Vulcan female moved away from her console and went over to the engineer laying on the ground. With a tricorder she began to scan the injured crewmember. "This is very odd!"

T'Kela looked from her tricorder to the engineer again then raised an eyebrow. "Commander Barclay I believe you should see this."

"In a minute, Lieutenant. If its important call for medical." Barclay ordered then went back to getting systems up and running again.

T'Kela raised an eyebrow at her superiors instance but did as instructed, "Medical emergency to sickbay!"

* * *

Scotty woke up to find himself not in the engine room where he last was but looked like he was in a brig. The security officer standing near the desk wasn't wearing a Starfleet uniform that he was familiar with. Granted part of the uniform was familiar, but with a different twist. The security guard had some type of sash around his waist and looked like, instead of a standard phaser, a dagger.

"Aye, laddie!" hollered Scotty. "What's going on?"

"Aye, I can answer that!" came an echoing voice.

Scotty was shocked to see that the officer coming around the corner was himself. "Y-you!"

"Aye, you remember!"

"You should have been dead with the rest of that _Enterprise_. Your Kirk is long dead!"

"Oh you mean Emperor Kirk? Oh well after Spock found out that you were not me and let you return to your own time Kirk killed Spock!"

As much as he tried he couldn't quite keep himself from gasping. It was Spock, both versions for that fact, indeed who discovered that the away team were not where they were supposed to be. Now here after 95 years Scotty was relieving this all over again.

"I demand to know what you want of me!"

The mirror Scotty threw his head back and laughed. "That's up to the captain to decide. After all it was _my_ plan to disable your ship. That fool is trying to take all the credit!"

"Then let me talk to your captain!"

The mirror Scotty kept laughing as he walked out towards the doors. The security guard glanced over at Scotty and smiled. Scott knew this wasn't going to be easy. The last time was caused by a transporter accident that they had solved. Now what are they planning and why?

Scotty knew this brig. He helped design it. But would the other version of himself know where the hidden doors to the jefferies tubes were? Before he could try to find it the Mirror Scotty turned and gave an evil grin.

"Oh and don't think of looking for the door inside your cell that leads to the jefferies tube! We've already had them sealed!"

_Damn!_ Scotty thought. "How would you possibly have known that?"

"Two reasons! I helped design _our_ _Camelot_ and two we scanned you first so we know your weaknesses!"

"I want to speak to your captain." barked Scotty.

"Your not in the position to demand anything. But if its all helpful Commodore Downward will speak with you when _he's_ ready! Not until then."

With that the mirror Scotty turned and left the brig leaving the chief engineer to ponder on what happened to the rest of the crew!

* * *

Commander Carter was still shaking off the after effects of whatever had knocked them unconscious and started looking over some controls trying to figure out where they were and _who_ was aboard the mirror version of their own ship. It hadn't been easy since most of the controls were offline but thanks to Commander Barclay and his staff in engineering they were able to get life-support back to normal. But the rest of the systems, including the main computer core, seems to have been offline either on purpose or by sabotage.

Carter looked around and especially at the viewscreen. The stars were the same but she served enough time to know that somehow the stars seem different. Although she couldn't prove it she looked over to Commander Tuvok. "Commander are long range sensors back online?"

"Negative, Commander. But we do have partial short range."

This seemed to catch Captain Downward's attention and he looked up from helping a crewmember at the science terminals. "Any planets or other ships in the vicitinty?"

Tuvok looked back down at his console and shooked his head. "Negative, Captain. Their not all that strong yet."

"Keep on it." ordered Carter.

The Vulcan nodded and got back to work. Downward and Carter seemed to be thinking the same thing wondering what else was happening to them. If they had a saboteur aboard then it must be a member of their crew. Carter knew her captain long enough that he was praying that this wasn't the case.

"Engineering to bridge!"

"Go ahead, doctor!"

"Captain, I think you should come down here!" Wright's voice sounded like she had some terrible news to tell but didn't want to do it over the, now fixed, comm systems.

_Great! Now what! _ Thought the Captain who nodded at his first officer who accompanied him in the turbolift.

* * *

Doctor Jodi Wright had been summoned shortly after life-support was reinstated. Her job was normally a dull and boring one unless somebody had come to her for a scrap or bruise or a broken arm from a holodeck injury, which seemed to happen quite often. But when she was summoned to engineering she knew that whatever happened to them was not normal.

Upon arriving in main engineering she found everybody hard at work trying to get the ship back to normal, all except for the chief engineer who was still laying unconscious where he had fallen. The looks of his body it had looked like Scotty had fallen from the catwalk.

Lieutenant T'Kela, who was the first one to have scanned the engineer and had summoned the doctor, noticed the doctor and moved over to her. "Doctor! I have scanned the engineer but something, either with our own tricorders or maybe my own senses, don't seem right."

"I'll take a look at him!"

Wright opened up her medical kit and pulled out a medical tricorder and began to scan her friend and chief engineer. Her expression on her face didn't seem to get any better as she scanned the engineer. It didn't take her very long to get to her conclussion on why Scotty had not gotten up. She simply put her hand right through the engineer. T'Kela who had been nearby raised an eyebrow.

"A holoprojection of the chief engineer? Who would do that?"

"Well hopefully we'll find out soon!"

* * *

When Downward and Carter arrived in engineering they found Dr. Wright, Lieutenant T'Kela and Lieutenant Commander Barclay all standing near the holographic chief engineer. Downward looked down at his friend to see why he hadn't gotten up. With no idea that his friend was a holoprojection.

"Report, doctor! Why hasn't Scotty gotten up yet?"

Wright held up a finger then addressed, not the captain, but the computer. "Computer deactivate the chief engineer."

The individual laying on the deck vanished. Where the once chief engineer was there was nothing but carpet now. "What the - ?"

"Somehow while we were unconscious the crew somehow got transported from _our_ ship to this one." Barclay answered!

"But isn't this _our_ ship?" asked Carter.

"No, ma'am!" answered Barclay. "Although it appears to be _our_ ship its not. The reason for this is because I found this clue."

Barclay turned and tapped a button on the engineering console and an image popped up. It was a logo that nobody in engineering recognized, except for the captain and first officer.

"The Terran Empire!"

"What?"

Tapping his comm badge Captain Downward gave an order that he'd given plenty of times. "Senior Staff meeting, ten minutes, observation lounge!"

Downward then turned to his acting chief engineer, "Is Mister Scott, the _real_ Mister Scott, anywhere aboard?"

"No sir!"

"Get all the information you can in the next ten minutes then I want you to join the senior staff."

"Aye captain."

"Doctor, if you don't mind!"

Downward turned on his heels and headed for the exit. He had a suspesion about this ship but he was hoping that he might be wrong. Doctor Wright followed but didn't say a word. She knew better to interrupt the captain when he was deep in thought. She had never heard of the Terran Empire before but by the looks of concern on the captain's face she knew that he must have.

They walked in silence until the reached a turbolift. "Doctor you've viewed everybodies records when you first came on board correct?"

"Of course. Its the first thing a chief medical officer is supposed to do aboard a new starship."

"Very good! Was there anything in my service record about what happened eighteen years ago?"

"Just about your depression problem when Captain O'Fritz was killed on stardate 62599.15 that it took you a few months to get over it before assuming command of the _Olympus_ on stardate 62752.61."

"Nothing about the incident that occurred when the _Enterprise-D_ was suddenly transported to another universe?"

"No sir!"

Downward nodded and then remained silent for a brief moment. _Starfleet must have covered that up then,_ thought Downward. It was clearly a dangerous mission trying to get back to their own universe and Captain Picard nearly lost his life over it.

The turbolift doors parted on deck 10 and they walked out and down the corridor with the captain leading the way. Doctor Wright had no clue where the captain was leading her but this deck did seem to look unfamiliar to her compared to _their_ ship. The more and more she noticed she walked the more she noticed the differences. There were shields and swords hanging from the wall. Triumphs from battles here and there. It wasn't until they turned into cabin 10-336 that she was finally getting her answer.

Inside, instead of a normal quarters, looked like booths. Captain Downward stopped in the middle of the room and looked around. Without waiting the captain answered the doctor's unasked question.

"Their agony booths, doctor. You see I was in one. When the _Enterprise-D_ got pulled into this universe we encountered a mirror version of our own vessel, such as we had just done earlier. When Captain Picard refused to give the mirror Picard the codes for Starfleet's defenses the mirror Picard had the crew tortured. Myself included."

Downward then turned to look at the startled look on his chief medical officer's face. "That's why I know something about this universe. Clearly it has changed in the last eighteen years, but the same format."

Downward turned and looked at each booth. This time taking it all in and noticing that there was an individual in booth number 3. Walking over to the control panel the captain punched in a few buttons and the door to booth 3 opened and the individual inside fell out.

Doctor Wright went over to examine the crewmember and then looked up. "He's a bit dazed but he'll live."

"Crewman, who are you!"

"My name is Q!" the crewman refused to look up. "Please don't hurt me again I'll do anything you say."

"Q?" Downward asked.

Q looked up finally and looked. "You are not Commodore Downward!"

Downward and Wright both looked at each other! Commodore? Clearly in this universe he wasn't a captain. Maybe in command of a starship yes but no longer captain.


End file.
